The present invention relates generally to the field of fishing bobbers, and specifically to lighted fishing bobbers.
Bobbers are commonly used in fishing to control the depth at which a baited hook or lure is suspended and to indicate when a fish has taken the hook. When a fish takes the bait or lure, the attached bobber will move, alerting the angler to the presence of a fish on the line. Various conditions and types of fishing call for various sizes and types of bobbers.
A more specialized bobber called a slip bobber is also capable of defining the depth at which a bait or lure is suspended. Slip bobbers have the ability to slide freely on the fishing line, and with fixed knots or bobber stops secured to the line above the bobber, the bait may be suspended to a pre-determined depth below the bobber. The bobber stop is generally capable of being freely wound on and discharged from a fishing reel, allowing more convenience in controlling the casting and retrieving of bait with most any type of rod and reel combination where the depth of the bait exceeds the length of the fishing rod. Use of the slip bobber allows excellent bait depth control in many fishing applications.
Unlighted slip bobbers are well known. In such bobbers the line is threaded through a channel along the vertical center axis of the bobber, allowing the bobber to move freely on the line, subject to stops or knots placed appropriately by the angler. Attachment of such a slip bobber to a fishing line generally requires disconnecting the line from the lure and leader. Such detachment is inconvenient and time consuming under the best conditions and still more of a problem when done in low light conditions.
Most lighted bobbers utilize internal batteries that must be periodically replaced. Such bobbers expose the bobber circuitry to the elements when replacing the batteries, require extra time, particularly at night, in opening and closing the bobber to replace batteries, incur the risk of water leakage into the battery chamber, and during the lifetime of the bobber, become increasingly troublesome to operate due to their more exposed and vulnerable components.
A number of lighted slip bobbers have been available to fisherman but have configurations which are structurally unbalanced and thus difficult to cast from a casting or spinning rod. Most such lighted slip bobbers have utilized an internal battery to supply energy, and consequently have encountered serious long term problems with effectively sealing the bobbers and preserving their integrity while still being able to remove and change the batteries.
Fishing with an unlighted bobber at dusk or after dark is challenging because seeing the bobber or detecting subtle movements thereof can be difficult under low light conditions. Consequently, the presence of a lighted bobber during such fishing conditions can be extremely helpful. An elongated lighted bobber using a light emitting diode (LED) is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,157,857 to Kent A. Livingston.
The '857 bobber has its LED positioned towards the lower portion of the bobber in a translucent sealed tube on the bobber's vertical center axis. The '857 bobber is a sealed unit and functions without any battery power source being carried on the bobber. The capacitive energy storage circuitry within the bobber, and which energizes the LED, is charged by touching the terminals of an external battery to contacts on the external surface of the bobber.
The '857 bobber can function as a slipbobber and has an eyelet at the upper end of the translucent tube, permitting the fishing line to slide through the eyelet and support the bait below the bobber. When no fish is tugging at the bait, the '857 bobber is balanced to float with the eyelet end of the tube upward and the LED underwater at the bottom of the bobber body. When a fish pulls on the bait, the eyelet end of the tube provides the leverage needed for the fishing line to tip the bobber upside down and wholly immerse the eyelet end of the tube and the adjacent bobber body. When the upper portion of the '857 bobber is tipped so as to submerge it underwater, the water creates a short circuit between two contacts on such upper portion, and the internal circuit then turns the LED on and causes it to blink on and off at a fast, almost continuously firing, rate while the two contacts are shorted. When the eyelet end of the bobber is upright and out of the water, the '857 bobber's LED is in a full off, nonblinking condition. The '857 patent also shows a second generally round bobber which does not have an elongated tube, but which otherwise functions like the bobber described above.
While the '857 bobber and its internal, energy storing circuit are an advance in this art, the bobber could be improved in several ways. For example, when the bobber is in use but not blinking, a fisherman has no way to be sure its energy storage circuit is not discharged, broken or otherwise inoperative, and he cannot be sure the bobber will light if a fish strikes. Without a steady blinking, the fisherman has nothing to confirm that the device is working or to tell him where it is in the water. In addition, when used in windy conditions or rough water, the somewhat unstable upper portion of the bobber can tip over even when no fish is on the line, and then the external contacts short circuit, thus giving a false indication of a fish on the line and needlessly wasting the stored energy with continuous firing of the LED. The '857 bobber, constructed with its eyelet and fishing line at the high end of the elongated tube, can carry only a predetermined amount of lure or bait weight before it will destabilize and tip over. Consequently, the lure or bait must not exceed such weight. By contrast, if the fishing line were positioned along the vertical center axis of the bobber, the bobber body would be more stable and float normally until the weight of the bait or the pulling of the fish is so great that the bobber sinks. Because the '857 bobber has its LED on its center axis, the fishing line cannot be positioned along the vertical center axis of the bobber. Consequently, the attachment of the line to the upper end of the tube or the top of the bobber has been necessary, even through that arrangement causes the bobber to tip over and invert under various non-fish strike conditions. When the '857 bobber is retrieved or if the bait snags in weeds or other underwater obstructions, or the bait is jiggled by the fisherman, the electrical contacts can be shorted, and the LED begins its continual firing and needlessly consumes its stored energy. It would be desirable to have a slip bobber which is more stable, does not give false indications by turning its LED on when the bobber tips due to wind and wave action, and whose energy storage circuit will operate for a more extended time.
The Livingston elongated bobber is marketed by Living Lures, Ltd. in a variation not disclosed in the '857 patent wherein the LED is positioned within the described outwardly extending translucent tube and at the upper portion of the bobber. This variation has the eyelet positioned at the lower end of the tube and thus always underwater. This variation is designed to have the LED float above the water and its circuit is designed to have the LED blink at a first rate at all times when its circuit is charged. In addition the circuit turns the LED on virtually continuously when the upper portion of the bobber becomes immersed sufficiently in the water so that a pair of contacts on the upper portion are short circuited. This variation results in the energy storage circuit being able to keep the bobber blinking at the first rate for about one hour under ideal conditions where no shorting of the contact occur. Its light emission level steadily decreases after about the first hour and becomes increasingly hard to see. In a continuously on state, the circuit depletes its energy in about a quarter hour. Under actual fishing conditions where the bobber contacts become short circuited due to wind and rough water action, the one hour of normal blinking will be significantly reduced. A longer operational time between needed charging of the circuit would be helpful.
While Livingston Lures variation is an improvement over the bobbers shown in the '857 patent, the variation's use of the long vertical tube on its center axis and the attachment of the fishing line at the lower end of that tube tends to excessively tip the bobber and needlessly destabilize it in rough water, waves or windy conditions and also when the bobber is being retrieved after casting. Whenever the bobber is destabilized by such causes and its contacts are short circuited, the LED lights continuously, giving a false reading and also more quickly depleting the limited energy storage circuit. It is desirable to eliminate the high energy continuously lighted LED operation of the Livingston bobber, and to increase the time during which the LED will operate without a recharging. It is also desirable to have a lighted slip bobber whose fishing line passes along its vertical center axis such that the bobber is as stable as possible in the water. Placement of the Livingston LED in the elongated tube reduces the light radiated from the LED, and placing the LED near the bobber outer surface also makes the bobber more vulnerable to impact damage during casting due to the LED having minimal encapsulation in the bobber body. It would be desirable to provide a lighted slip bobber that better protects the LED from impact shock and breakage, yet still provides greater LED visibility, a faster blinking frequency of the LED light source, significantly longer operation on a single charging of the internal circuit and the ability to keep the fishing line along the center axis of the slip bobber while also permitting the fishing line to be easily removed from the bobber without disassembly of the line from bait or lure. Applicant's invention addresses these structural shortcomings and provides a solution.